Posts Tagged ‘concert reviews’
Nicko McBrain’s Titanium Tart / Velvet Sky / Maximum Friction, Sanford, FL, July 25, 2025
Haven’t posted in a while but this one was important enough to share here…
Let’s flashback to about 1983. I wasn’t playing drums yet but I wanted to learn and a big reason for that was hearing Piece Of Mind and Nicko McBrain. They were becoming and still are my favorite band of all time, not matter that I generally haven’t cared about anything they’ve put out since No Prayer.
Flash forward to early 1988. I’m 17, a senior with terribly poofy hair and acne and local music store Abbey Music announces that Nicko, my favorite drummer ever, was doing a drum clinic and of course I had to go.
There were only about 30 people there as Whitesnake was in town touring for the ’87 LP. I was one of 2 people who actually got to get up on stage and play his drums with him standing right there. It was awesome. I still have the pair of his signature sticks! During one of his rambles, he mentioned the size of the crowd being small due to Whitesnake being in town. Under my breath from the front row I said “Fuck Tommy Aldridge.” Nicko stopped his speech and said, “Steve, give that man a beer!” So his tech handed me an ice cold Heineken which I had Nicko autograph after the show as we were getting a photo taken. I still have that bottle, unopened and it’s all chunky inside. I didn’t drink at the time so there was no reason to open it. It was an incredible night.
Flash forward to just a few weeks ago and I see a post online about Nicko’s Titanium Tart playing 4 Florida shows and offering a meet and greet. I had to do it. I sent the info to Kelz and we got on a long phone call to discuss logistics. Just based on price point, I decided to fly into Raleigh where he is and we’d drive down to Sanford, FL. BUT…we wanted to make sure we were able to purchase the meet and greet which was to go on sale a couple of days later. We got the tix dnd I booked my trip and that was that.
Thursday July 24
Kelz picks me up mid afternoon at the airport, we chill at his place a bit then run out for dinner at a coney dog place called Cloos’. It was excellent. Back to his place to chill for a bit and watch a movie. We planned to leave at 7AM on Friday.
Friday July 25
We did leave at 7AM and because of some traffic issues along that way, we got to our crash pad right at 5PM. Luckily we were just a couple of blocks away. We dropped our stuff, freshened up and walked over to The Barn. That humidity was no joke. Once there we checked in and got our meet and greet swag and do our obligatory pre-show shot. Mine was just Coke.
First band, Maximum Friction, opened up the evening. They’re all young high school kids and play as a 3pc with the bassist handling vocal duties. They played all classic metal covers by Ozzy, Megadeth, Sabbath, Pantera etc and one original. They were pretty solid and reminded me of School of Rock type kids. Good on em.
Another 3pc called Velvet Sky played next. Both bands played a side room and I didn’t watch any of Velvet Sky.
Nicko’s band started just before 8PM on the main stage and we grabbed a spot near the front stage right in the VIP section. You couldn’t really see Nicko because of his kit size but we could hear him fine. In general I’d call the song selection meh but I’m sure they’re doing the songs that best fit his physical condition. He did as well as I’d expected, especially after seeing three shows from that last tour. I was stoked to hear Infinite Dreams. Partially disabled by his stroke or not, the man’s right foot is still devastating as he proved throughout the night.
He’d come out from behind the kit every few songs and talk, tell jokes, introduced the band etc. I stayed up in that area for about the first third of the show and moved to the back of the room. Knees were stiffening up and I needed to loosen em up and walk around a bit. Kelz left the VIP shortly after and we watched the remainder of the show back by the soundboard. Looked like about 200-250 folks.
Immediately after their set, the meet and greet folks were told to wait by the stairs to the upper level. They sold 50 of those packages at $75 a pop. We were in the last 10 or so to cycle thru.
It was billed as getting “one on one time with Nicko” and only one item to get signed. Uh yeah. I was gonna try and work some mojo and get two items signed: The Book and the photo of us from 1988 for framing purposes. Nicko would engage with the folks almost as much as anyone wished to. Some folks opted for a quick sig and a photo and some engaged with him more. It was nice to see altho it slowed things down a bit. We had nowhere to be, right?
Kelz is up first and I filmed their interaction. He got his main two things signed: a cool old Sonor ad from Modern Drummer and his Powerslave cd which already had sigs by Bruce, Adrian and Steve. Pretty sweet.
I’m up next and lay The Book out in front of him and he signed it. He was pretty indifferent about it but was digging our photo. I started recounting the events of that night and mentioned his former drum tech (RIP) and the Heineken. That affected him a little and he said he missed that guy. He said, “this must’ve been from 89” and I showed him the announcement flyer and explained it was Feb 1, 1988 pre-Seventh Son and that night was the first time I’d heard the title of the upcoming album. I asked if he’d sign the photo and he obliged. They had someone taking pics using our cameras and Kelz filmed most of my interaction with the man. We did the one main photo and he shook my hand and I asked him for a hug. He obliged and I told him in his ear how much I loved him and thanked him for a lifetime of music. He thanked me back and that was that. I was hoping to recreate our original photo as much as we could’ve but it just didn’t play out that way and I’m good with that.
My San Antonio buddy Ruben and his lovely wife Jasmin were right behind us and get their stuff signed. He also had Nicko sign his leg which hopefully got tattooed in today.
We collected ourselves after the surreal moments with Nicko and Ruben gave us a ride back. Our adrenaline was still up and we ordered in a couple of sammiches, talked about the evening a bit more and crashed out. It was a perfect night.
We drove back Saturday the 26th, it was a little over 9 hours coming back and traffic was light for the most part. We got back here at 6PMish and just chilled out for the evening with a couple of movies.
The expense and time of this trip was worth every minute and dollar spent. Getting Nicko in The Book was a pinnacle moment and I’m considering retiring it. As I’m writing this eating breakfast tacos Sunday morning here in Raleigh with Kelz, we’re still quite a bit in awe of meeting Nicko. Glad we got to share the experience together as Iron Maiden has been a major part of our friendship for over 40 years.
All hail Nicko and always Up The Irons! Forever.
Video of Nicko and me:
Setlist: https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/titanium-tart/2025/the-barn-in-sanford-sanford-fl-4b4283ae.html
New Kids On The Block, Paula Abdul, DJ Jazzy Jeff, Austin, TX, July 12, 2024
Friday night in Austin, TX marked the 3rd time I got to meet Paula Abdul. When presale tickets went on sale a few months back I snagged a front row aisle seat and hoped that a meet and greet would eventually be advertised, which it was.
My good friend, Amparo, who is also a client also bought the meet and greet and accompanied me to the show. We got parked and walked over to the VIP tent and got checked in. There were only about 9 of us while NKOTB had at least 150. That was nuts. We walked through the venue down to the backstage area where there was a Paula backdrop. Her meet and greet manager, Mitch, gave a few instructions and shortly after Paula walked out. She’s so preciously tiny and beautiful. I got all giddy seeing her again.
Most of the line got their stuff signed and photos taken then it was my turn, which went something like this:
“What are you getting signed?”
My arm again if you don’t mind.
“Oh, I remember these now. How are you?”
*passes out. Gets back up quickly*
One of her assistants says, “hold on, I want to film this” and he airdropped the video to me after we did our photos together.
When I had her in my arms for the photo, I mentioned that I may come up for her headline tour in Calgary and asked “can a brutha get a hookup?”
“You’d come up there to see me?”
So many responses ran thru my head but I only said, “yes ma’am, of course.” After the photo she called her assistant over and said, “get his contact info and put him on the list for Calgary.” *swoon* Purposely I had a business card with me. 😄
It was a great few minutes with her. After the meet and greet ended, we were walked back out to the main area of the venue and got to check out the merch and grab a drink before the crowd was let in. I wanted a Paula shirt but not having tour dates on the back killed it for me. We grabbed a drink then went to our seats to check out DJ Jazzy Jeff’s set. He had a rapper/hype man with him to keep the crowd involved and he did a good job. Jeff spuns stuff from the likes of OPP to the Cheers theme song to some dance hits that I have no idea who they’re by to Don’t Stop Believing. It was a very white girl crowd and and during the journey song I looked at the super white girls next to me and said, “he definitely knows his audience” and the girls said, “you’re not wrong!” Haha
He finished up and the changeover was about 15 minutes and Paula’s show started. She opened with Straight Up and went into Vibeology. No surprises in the set and there was a medley towards the end of the set that included pieces of some deeper cuts. Also no surprise that she’s not singing through most of the set, but mainly because she’s dancing and moving around a lot. At 62, she’s more mobile than most people I know. Impressive.
Neither Amparo nor I cared about NKOTB so we left during the second song. Meh.
Even though this is the third time I’ve met her, I always forget how tiny she is. She’s perfectly dainty at 5’0”. While this was a very expensive day, it was really worth it to me and I hope to see her again in Calgary, hooked up or not. She is and always will be forever my girl.
Paula Abdul setlist here: https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/paula-abdul/2024/germania-insurance-amphitheater-austin-tx-b54814e.html
Max & Iggor Cavalera Review, Austin, TX, June 21, 2022
When I saw that Max and Iggor Cavalera were doing a reboot tour of Beneath the Remains and Arise, I knew I had to go. I was already out of high school when Beneath came out and instantly fell in love with it. I had heard the previous albums and they didn’t do anything for me but I really dig Schizophrenia these days, too. My best friend from my high school went to Brooklyn to see the Beneath tour but I couldn’t afford that kind of trip back in those days, but he did bring me back a tour shirt that my guitarist borrowed and never returned. I didn’t care much for Arise or Chaos AD outside of a few tracks here and there but did finally catch them on the Chaos tour in 1994 and got to hang out with them.
The goal for last night, outside of seeing them do Beneath, was to get Max and Iggor in the book. A few years back I met Paulo and Andreas and got them in there.
The show was packed and I stayed outside through all of the opening bands. None of them appealed to me at all. We went upstairs and got let into the VIP room overlooking the stage and I watched the Beneath portion of the set from there. IT WAS BADASS. It really took me back in time for a bit and it was great to watch Iggor play from up above. He’s got a cool style.
As the Arise set started, I made my way downstairs and took in part of the set then made it back outside. While I like the venue a lot, it’s not comfortable at all when there’s a huge crowd.
I actually got to the venue super early hoping to get The Book signed but with it being so hot out, 100+ degrees, they had already been in and sound checked so I walked to a local establishment and hung out in the AC for a while. After the show, a few of us went to the backstage door and both Max and Iggor came out and said they’d be right back. A few of us waited for over an hour and they never returned. That was a bit of a let down, but those let downs build character. haha. Oh well, maybe someday I’ll finish the Sepultura entry in The Book.
It was a great show and I got to see a lot of friends that I hadn’t seen in a long time.
KISS Review, Raleigh, NC, May 17, 2022
This is a story about many things, but mostly of friends, KISS and how small of a world we live in.
Let’s just start with me being a huge fan of 70s KISS. I’ve told the story often about how my older brother Robert (RIP) stole a copy of Dressed To Kill from Montgomery Ward when I was a kid and that got me hooked on KISS immediately. Forever thankful that my brother was a thief I guess. Haha. I do prefer the 70s and some of the 80s stuff, but mainly the makeup era for sure.
But let’s get on with this story. I play poker…A LOT…and a couple of weeks prior to this show I was playing at a friend’s house where we play about every other month with fellow friends in our industry as well as some other friends of Steve’s (the host). That night a friend of a friend came to play and was seated next to me. He is in his early 60s and we got to talking about music and we connected pretty quickly. He tells me that he manages Earth Wind and Fire, Smokey Robinson and works with Doc McGhee (KISS). I tell him about how big of a KISS fan I am and show him some info about “The Book” and how much I’d love to get those guys in there. “I can make that happen.” Oh? He gives me his card and says to contact him over the weekend and he would see what he could do for the upcoming Raleigh show. He left mid-poker game to take care of some band business and that was that.
The next morning I send him a text with my contact info and he said he’d get back to me. I didn’t book my flight yet because you never know how real stuff like this is. I didn’t hear back from him until the following Wednesday and he said, “You’re all set up. I couldn’t get the meet and greet as it was filled up and still very limited, but I have you +1 and you’re gonna love your seats.” WHAAAAAAT? Sweet! I thanked him about 20 times then went and booked my flight. My best friend Chris lives in Raleigh so he was going to be my +1, mainly because he was available and I needed a place to sleep while I was there, not because I wanted to see him again so soon after Hell’s Heroes. Ha.
So I get to Raleigh on Monday afternoon and we go and grab dinner and a couple drinks before heading to his place. We get there, hang out with his wife and then crash out.
We get up Tuesday and he’s got to get his boys ready for school and work and I also had work to do, so we took care of business as we needed to and then got ready to head to the Walnut Creek Amphitheater for the show. We hit a record store, found nothing of interest and went across the street to a little bar and grabbed dinner and a couple of drinks and made our way through the show traffic to get parked. I was a little nervous since I didn’t have tickets in hand that maybe we didn’t get hooked up so I went to will call and gave her my ID and she handed me an envelope. Whew. We were prepared to buy cheap seats just in case we didn’t get tix. I opened the envelope and I saw that we were in section 2, row N. Ooooooh, those sound close.
Once inside, we bought an overpriced drink and meet up with some friends for a bit. After that we go to our seats and WHOA…we’re close. We’re dead center in the front section and only about 10-12 rows back. I was shocked to be honest. These are not cheap seats, especially at a KISS show.
As we’re sitting down, I have a woman and her kid next to me and we get into a conversation. She was in visiting from Corpus Christi, TX and I tell her I was in from Austin. Come to find out, she got hooked up through the same guy I did. Her best friend is this guy’s neighbor and her friend got them hooked up for the show. Oddly enough, I know her friend as well. Her daughter is 11 or 12 and is a massive KISS fan. I sent a message to the guy and their picture and he was ecstatic that we had connected. What a small world! Just a crazy connection.
So there we were, all anticipating KISS hitting the stage. Chris isn’t a fan, but that was only because he didn’t get that exposure in his younger years like many of us did, but he was also looking forward to seeing it live. And then boom, the curtain drops and there they are opening with Detroit Rock City and I got an instant boost of energy. They rolled through the same set that they have been playing for a while but it was a solid list overall minus Say Yeah and Psycho Circus. Of course I would have loved more from Rock and Roll Over but oh well. They were solid and both Gene and Paul’s voices sounded good. There was only one spot in one song that I think Paul used something canned, but the rest of the night sounded natural to my ears. The show was absolutely fun and I had only seen KISS one other time and that was within the last 10 years. One of the things I loved the most was watching Jeanette’s kid have such a great time seeing her favorite band. KISS knows how to put on a show. Towards the end they dropped large KISS balloons and I caught one to give to her kid. She was excited about it. I had such a great time and getting to see my best friend enjoy a band he wasn’t all that into and meeting new friends made it a wonderful night all around.
The show ends and as we’re walking out covered in confetti and Jeanette mentioned that she was going to try and get an Uber to get back to their hotel. I told her she’d likely be waiting forever and that we could give her a ride. So we get back to Chris’ vehicle, throw the large balloon in the back and head to their hotel. Quick hugs and goodbyes at the hotel and we were off to find a late night snack and drink. We found it, but it wasn’t that great. Whatever. Back to the house and we crashed out pretty quickly.
The next morning, we both do some work, catch his wife up on how the show went and the “small world” story. Once we both got caught up on work, I packed and showered and we headed off to hit a BBQ restaurant to get my belly filled with some eastern NC style pork BBQ since I can’t get that style here in Texas. Off to the airport from there. I had a connection through Atlanta and ran into a poker buddy there who was headed back to Austin.
What a great time. No matter that KISS is still Gene, Paul and “those other guys”, they still kill it live. They’re obviously not young guys anymore but can still put on as good of a show as anyone.
KISS FOREVER. And a million thanks to Mike for the hookup.
Dennis DeYoung & Night Ranger Concert Review, Austin, TX, June 1, 2018
For many of us, Styx has been unavoidable since the mid-70s. Their music was everywhere…radio, roller rink, pool parties etc. But they seem to always have 2 sides, you like ’em or you don’t. Never saw much middle ground and it seems most people can’t stand Dennis DeYoung’s voice. I’m in the “like ’em” camp although I’m not a fanatic and I’ve never seen them play with Dennis in the band, so I decided to go see the voice that was a huge part of my youth, good or bad.
I had sort of forgotten about the show until just a few days prior and invited a friend at the last minute to go.
Night Ranger was the opener and I hadn’t seen them before, either. They rolled through their greatest hits with ease and with pure energy. To be precise, they were completely badass. I was really blown away by 2 main things, Jack Blades’ voice and Brad Gillis’ guitar playing. Jack’s voice was sharp and he had no problem getting high in the vocal range. Kelly Keagy and Gillis were no slouches in the vocal department either. Overall it was a killer set and good to see Keri Kelli again. Highlights were Don’t Tell Me You Love Me and When You Close Your Eyes.
Dennis DeYoung had recently been playing 2 sets containing all of the Grand Illusion album but last night it was just one set of basically Styx’s greatest hits. As expected, the whole band was on point, musically and vocally including Dennis. He’s a very spry 71 but his voice is still strong. Lots of memories from middle school flooded in. It was quite an enjoyable show and the highlights for me were Best of Times, Lorelei and Suite Madame Blue.
The Metal Files 
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